Our people

Aila, with her late partner, Dr Keith Scott, co-founded the Society in 1982. Both gave up promising careers in biochemistry to devote their lives and professional expertise to the protection of Australia’s rainforests. Passion, persistence, scientific credibility, hard work, luck and capacity to seize unexpected windows of opportunity have been the keys to success. Teamwork and networking are vital too. Now, 43 years later,
- 1.5 million hectares of wet forests in five bioregions have been protected,
- three World Heritage areas have been listed,
- all rainforest logging on public land has ceased,
- the Delbessie Agreement reform was enacted to bring 63 per cent of Queensland’s degraded lands into good condition, and
- a rescue plan is in progress for the rainforests and cloud forests of the Springbrook plateau, where the earliest ancestry of plants and animals persist.

In recognition of Aila's outstanding record of successful action in conservation, she was awarded as Laureate of the Volvo Environment Prize in 2005, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in conservation.

Visit Aila's Wikipedia profile.

Dr A.J. Brown AM is Professor of public policy and law in the School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, where he specialises in public integrity, accountability, governance reform and public trust.

He is also Chair of Transparency International Australia, the anti-corruption organisation, and a community representative on Queensland’s Public Sector Governance Council.

A third-generation Springbrook landowner and local, AJ has been committed to rainforest restoration since 1987, when his father Wallace gave up 90% of their property 'Nalong' for addition to what became the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area. Formerly active with The Wilderness Society and other environment groups, he was worked for Commonwealth and Queensland Governments including as a ministerial policy adviser.

Visit A.J.’s Griffith University profile.

Dr Martin Taylor has been involved in full-time conservation work for several decades in the USA as conservation scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, internationally working for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and in Australia, working for the National Parks Association of Queensland, at ARCS and as protected area manager for WWF-Australia from 2006 to 2021. Martin is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Environment, University of Queensland.

Visit Martin's researchgate profile.

With partner Mike West, Linda has been involved in conservation since the mid 1970s and has been active in many campaigns:
- Halting logging and protecting the Conondale Range
- Halting sand mining and protecting Moreton Is
- Halting logging and protecting Kgari as World Heritage (formerly Fraser Island)
- Preventing sale of Qld Stock Routes
- Working with AWC to buy and protect Bowra Station
- Preventing luxury cabin developments within Cooloola National Park

Dr Gordon Guymer was Director of the Queensland Herbarium from 1994 to 2022 when he retired. The botanical research ARCS has conducted over several decades in making the case for forest protection has relied heavily on the Herbarium's and in particular Gordon's guidance.

His expertise and depth of knowledge is central to the management and mapping of regional ecosystems, vegetation, threatened species, including koala habitat in Queensland, and has also advised Queensland Health on poisons information and the Queensland Police Service on forensic botany.

Dr Guymer has published over 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers and reports, described three new plant genera and over 100 plant species new to science. He has overseen making the Queensland Herbarium’s extensive biodiversity data publicly available and this has enabled better environmental decision making.

Dr Guymer is regarded as the intellectual leader in Queensland’s plant biodiversity, environmental values and ecosystems by government and non-government stakeholders. His dedication and commitment to biodiversity and its conservation is enduring.

In recognition of his service to science and nature conservation Dr Guymer was awarded the Queen's Public Service Medal on Australia Day in 2022.

Virginia has been involved in successful environmental campaigns across Australia since the late 1980s. She worked closely with ARCS on the South East Queensland Forests Agreement.

Virginia pioneered a continental-scale approach to nature conservation in Australia with the establishment of Wild Country, guided by the Wild Country Science Council.

Since 2007 she established the Ecosystems Climate Alliance (ECA), an alliance of international ENGO’s that feed good science, policy and nature advocacy into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Virginia is currently Chair of Gondwana-Link a ground-breaking project restoring and reconnecting lands across SW Western Australia and Managing Director of Forests Alive, a company that offers carbon credits for native forest protection. Virginia was awarded Wild magazine's Environmentalists of the Year in 2001 and was recognized as one of 20 ‘Global Wilderness Visionaries’ by the World Wilderness Congress in 2010.

Clyde Wild is a retired Professor of Environmental Biology at Griffith University, and previously held the positions of Dean (Academic) in Science, Head of the School of Environmental and Applied Sciences and foundation Director of The Centre for Innovative Conservation Strategies at Griffith University.

He has lectured in environmental biology commencing in 1994 and on ecology, entomology, whole-organism biology, environmental studies, mathematics, statistics and computer operations.

Before joining Griffith University he worked in weed ecology and management, especially the biological control of weeds, and he spent 3 years in Brasil researching the natural enemies of Parthenium weed.

Clyde’s particular interest is the interaction of people with the natural environment, and his goal is to identify ways in which people can live in an area while its biodiversity values are maintained. He has extensive experience in weed management and rainforest restoration at Springbrook in the hinterland of the Gold Coast.

Visit Clyde's Researchgate profile.

Alec has lead successful environmental campaigns across Australia since 1985. He was Director of The Wilderness Society (TWS) from 1997 to 2010, growing the organization from 7,000 members, a $1 million turnover and 28 staff to one with 45,000 members, a $15 million turnover and 200 staff.

Highlights of achievements under his direction include inscription of Australia’s Sub Antarctic Islands on the World Heritage list, closure of the Jabiluka uranium mine in World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park, blocking creation of a nuclear fuel dump in Northern Australia, and the ultimate breakdown of Gunns Ltd stranglehold on the forest woodchipping industry in Tasmania through skilled market pressure, facilitating (with Virginia Young) the creation of the Ecosystems Climate Alliance (ECA) in 2009.

Alec had a key role in the successful extension in 2013 of the Eastern Boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

He has maintained and nurtured extensive international networks through his work with IUCN, World Heritage processes and the World Wilderness Congress. He has represented ARCS at many of these forums.

He was awarded the Australian Humanitarian Award on behalf of TWS in 2000, the Wild Magazine’s Environmentalists of the Year in 2001 and recognized as one of ‘20 Global Wilderness Visionaries’ by the World Wilderness Congress in 2010.